By: Ben Vaschetti
Co-Founder
MAISON BENJAMIN
Earning the third Michelin stars in the restaurants industry is the upmost recognition that you can achieve as a chef, there is nothing above itperiod! You are the summit of the mountain and can’t climb higher.
The process to receive that award, is far from easy though and the path towards that success can be rough for the chef and his team. It requires an extreme work ethic, discipline, patience and commitment and it’s something that is extremely stressful for the chef and restaurant’s ownership. Because of the pressure from everything being perfect from the service quality, wine’s taste, and obviously the food being cooked at perfection, chefs are constantly under the scrutiny of the Michelin inspectors, who can come and dine “incognito” at any time, therefore there is never a dull or relaxed moment in the kitchen….
As a cook employed in restaurant with no Michelin stars there is no pressure, if you work in a one Michelin star restaurant you can experience some tension from the head chef but nothing extreme, if you work in a two stars restaurant, things start to get serious and you know there will be some tough times almost on daily basis…. Working in a Three Michelin stars you’re In a for a bumpy ride as you know that everything single dish that you will cook and serve, the reputation of the head chef and the restaurant is on the line… Losing a star could be a colossal loss of revenue and reputation for the following years, hence the extreme rudeness, arrogance and nastiness and sometimes all at once from the chef…ultimately it makes your life pretty tough when you work in these type of restaurants.
Most of cooks are eager to learn and improve their cooking skills gradually to make their way by starting to train and work in a non-starred restaurants for a couple of years, then into a one Michelin star for two or three years, eventually in a two Michelin stars restaurant for another couple of years and finally after six, seven, eight years of hard work the door open to the crazy, scary, but exciting world of Michelin three stars… it’s an achievement to obtain a position at the top of the game and keeping it, is probably harder as there is a waiting list of talented cooks that wants to work in these restaurants as its definitely a very good reference on their resume…
My story, is quite different…
After graduating from a culinary school in Avignon, France I obtained my first cook job in a restaurant in Paris where I learned the basics, and gained experience in a non-starred restaurant …After about a year, at age of twenty one I wanted to go and learn English in a one Michelin restaurant in London, UK as it would have been a rather logical career path, from zero to one Michelin star.
I was ready and eager for the challenge …. Until the chef I worked-for in Paris told me “Ben you are not going to London, but you are instead going to work at the famous Auberge de L’Ill restaurant in the Alsace region “. I couldn’t believe what was happening to me, it was a total chaos in my head!! I was surprised, excited, happy, sad (not to go to London) and stressed because it’s not the usual path to go from zero to three Michelin star restaurant but somehow, my chef had believed in me and thought I’d do well there and in my career overall… he secretly arranged everything from me…
Fast forward, couple of months after, her am I, starting my new job in a top ranked Michelin tree stars restaurant, without any previous experience in a one or two starred restaurant …! What a jump for something that I basically never asked or thought I was capable of…
Couldn’t be more challenging than what I was experiencing at the age of twenty-two… the first sixth month were an absolute nightmare… I probably lost 10kg, as I was really stressed and wanted to quit that job almost every day, the working hours were a minimum of fourteen, fifteen hours a day and up to sixteen, seventeen on weekend and holidays…at some point I thought I was going go into depression… I knew I had to improve everything with my cooking, cutting and baking , being faster, more accurate with my knife skills, basically I felt like I was dumb in this three Michelin stars environment….it was almost thirty cooks working simultaneously in this kitchen, pressure was so intense that some of the cooks will get into a fight in a middle of a lunch service, luckily I never got in a fight but I once got kicked-in in my ankles by my superior for not being fast enough dressing the plate…. That’s how though it is working in France in a top Michelin star establishment … BUT after a year of resilience, not giving up, and overcome the struggle (and the struggle was real!) I was finally used to that daily challenge, and was progressively getting more confident, and all my skills improved fast forward, I was now almost at ease working in this environment and I ended up staying another year, in which I improved, learned even more, gained much more confidence and was actually (and as of today still are) grateful to these couple of years spent struggling, and this experience, has opened so many doors in my chef’s career afterwards….Time to time, even twenty years later, I still think about my tough time working there and how I was able to overcome the challenge by not giving up…
Chapter 2: Landing in the USA without speaking any words of English.
Late January 2002, three weeks after finishing my job at Auberge de L’ill, here I am in the shuttle bus from JFK airport to Manhattan, jetlagged without knowing where I am…I don’t understand when the driver announce the next stops, but somehow manage to get off at my midtown’s stop on Madison and 51st street with my large suitcase. I remember, It was a cold Friday night with frozen bunks of snow on the sidewalk.
I arrived couple of days before starting my new role at Le Cirque 2000 (now closed) to adjust with jet lag and somehow trying to get a sense how NYC works before I dive into what is going to be another gigantic challenge for me…
That Monday, I showed up for day one of my “new life”, I had no idea what to expect, new job, new city, new country, new language, new everything!
I started working in a team of fifty+ cooks, because of my experience working in France, I had to somehow manage and lead the way…rather rough for someone who doesn’t even know which is which between Tuesday & Thursday in English… Though time to be the new sous-chef that can’t clearly express himself …but eventually weeks after weeks with some patience and resilience I was finally able to hold an okay conversation …Once my English improved, I started to gain respect from others cooks and was able to strive with my culinary skills and became one of the most valuable chef among this large team…
Chapter 3: Opening a restaurant in NYC
Fast forward almost 20 years, here I am in 2018, the eve of opening my own restaurant in NYC … I always thought that owning a restaurant in the big apple, would be fun and smooth ride… but it turned out to be one of the most stressful and exhausting time of my career. You may have all the best ingredients to succeed, that city never gives you any break in all aspects… you are constantly dealing with pressure from food critics, never ending staff issues, food safety compliances etc… and New York City being know for the city that never sleeps, it also applied to me! Due to high cost of rents, you constantly must remain open to make ends meets, and as an owner that means no days off and after two to three months it’s starts to affect your mental, and that’s when you must remain calm and confident to last and succeed in this very though business….
After almost a year when I was finally able to take some time off as the team was now up to speed with most of standards and procedures of running a restaurant, you have the most unexpected event such as the Covid-19 pandemic that hits you hard in the face and therefore, for the safety and wellbeing of patrons and staff included, you have no choice than closing the doors and be sheltered at home…One of the hardest thing for a small business owner, not knowing when you’ll be able pay everyone and when to resume operations…
But after three months of non-activities, staff cuts, we eventually re-opened by doing take-out orders only… We were doing somehow okay business, but somehow not enough to sustain for many more weeks especially when in the summer most of our regular customers leave town for the Hamptons. In July 2020, after two and a half years of we took the tough decision to close the restaurant. This was a little hard to accept it, but it was probably the right move…
Few weeks later, in September 2020, after we handed back the keys to the landlord, my mind was already into another project and even though I could still not believe that a pandemic forced us to abort the mission, I was determined to never look back and only think positive and forward to my next venture…
Chapter 4: Launching a brand-new business in 2020
I always had that dream to launch a company that would focus on providing top notch concierge services and truly make the customer’s satisfaction a top priority. With my years of experiences working in the most amazing households, luxurious hotels and mega yachts around the world, and despite 2020 wasn’t’ probably ideal, I had to seize the opportunity of the world being on the reset mode to go for it, and after a couple of months of preparation, Maison Benjamin launched in December…
The first few weeks of operations were very tricky as the world was slowly adapting to post-covid era with its new ways of doing business and living. During the first semester of 2021, we faced challenging times as we had to constantly follow and adapt to the new federal and state laws especially with catering events at reduced capacity, that we were providing…but like everyone else, we were able to comply and make our way through the obstacles with patience and resilience.
As of 2023, Maison Benjamin luxury Travel advisors & personal lifestyle concierge has expended its service globally and proudly affiliated to the Virtuoso network.
Whatever the circumstances have been, I have always been able to adapt to any situations the best I could and patiently overcome the challenges, by putting discipline into my work. This is still the case as of today. I keep believing in everything I do and that’s what keep me going – Always.
